IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 305, 26 December 1930, Page 10

IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

MR. FORBES MAKES GOOD

NOT ALL LOST?

(Ffohi. Our Own CorresjionaeatO

LONDON, November if. On the morrow of the Imperial Con ference it is possible to collate soim impressions Of its personalities and ' their impact on the world of affair* here. Nothing is clearer than the definite " place which Mr. Forbes has taken Fron the first he has shown sturdy indepei) 1 dence and fairness of mind, and lis above all, remembered that he is on. of a team in the hands of which th< destinies of the British Empire lie J,, ' short he more than any of the Dominioi, Prime Ministers, has shown up as i man of character with a statesman-lik'e grasp of the Empire as a whole,-who has refused to be hustled into taiiu.r short views. He has, in short, earned the respect of all parties to an extent which was hardly to be anticipated, comihg as he did unknown to London and among Prime Ministers Mho had'been" heralded by so much more publicity before the conference met—Mr. Scullin owing to the state of Australian affairs - Mr. Bennett through his tariff so widely' advertised as a bargain for the Old Country, and a ten per cent preference which worked out at something different. ° The: "Morning Post," which described Mr. Korbes during the.conference as blunt arid direct of speech," ori Satur' ,■ day said: "Mr. Forbes, who wbrthil# represents New Zealand, arid who has ' won golden opinions on all sides,, stated-, the case more fully, and with' characteristic moderation and generosity.- He expressed his 'regret that it has riot been possible for us to come closer together in relation to our mutual trade'; he made no complaint, of His Majesty's 1 Governhieiit for their refusal. . s -. * "there speaks a friend, and such magnanimity makes it the more bitter a thought that, where there was fetich a j spirit of goodwill, such a.desire to help . to get lis but of the economic- slough of despond, these most friendly and hopeful offers should have met with the implacable fanaticism of Free Trade." It is,rather startling.to think" that the population of this country, will have ' through its Press'such extraordinarilydifferent ideas of the outcome of the. conference if they only read one paper. On .the one hand the "Morning Post" says ' delegates have been . '*sent empty, away," While the Liberal Chronicle" considers it to be "JSV Thanksi to the Tory Patriots," if no agreement has been reached. The latter paper '.sayst "Again and again .the Conservative..- party has been 'challenged to say whether it .would he willing to Ux food and jeopardise fiveeighths of our. foreign trade in return for the trivial and almost meaningless, preference.'offer' from the Dominions. It has never .had the courage or the hoiiesty to give a- straight answer, to that question. Imperial unity arid imperial progress on the basis of fiscal bargains' -is a snare and a delusion.-The British Government has kept'its head at this conference, arid it seems in difficult' circumstances, to have preserved a seiitimerit'of, goodwill.. The party of Conservative ..patriots can Claim lio share'of the credit.- It has done its best by keeping Up. a running fire of bitter ; reproaches, to discredit the Government and to majke its ; pOsitipn at the con-' ference .intolerable. " Instead,.' ..these ceaseless attacks reduced the efficiency of the conference and neatly'torpedoed it". -•. : '-.- ' "The Times,-" no admirer of Labour or the present Government, concedes that "all tha delegates have paid sincere tribute to. the-admirable qualities which Mn- MaeDoiiald displayed ,as : chairman ' of the conference, to the patience arid the tact , with which he helped it to get oyer! the "many 1 difficulties which arose, ..especially in. the .concluding stages^'' r , .That tribute he certainly earned. But it is none the less true that the failure .of the conference to achieve any concrete result is primarily diie to the fa.ct that the Government drifted into it Without any clear-policy or de- v finite, plan and without anything like the preparation that was. needed. The plain truth is that they had' not made up their minds beforehand as to the results they wanted to achieve, and that they were therefore unable to give, the conference the leadership necessary to make it'a success." ; It Concludes its long leading article on the conference with a rebuke to Mr. Arriery—an Unexpected feature in the Columns of "The Times": "Mr. Amery, who has lost rib time in' putting forward hig views, would have the public believe that the six weeks' labours of the delegates have gone for nothing at. alb TMat, is an over-statement. It is true that no definite step forward has been made; but doors have been kept open which it was feared might be shut,.and at least the way has been" made smoother in-, stead of rougher for any step forward that the Ottawa Conference may feel able to take." With regard to the general outcome of the cbnference "The Times" bhjines the Government for Its indecision. •'For weeks the Dominion Ministers, who were working hard' to • hammer out an acceptable scheme, were led to believe that the Government were ready to accept it—only to find in the end that the •utmost they could be induced to do was to leave it open for further consideration at Ottawa.

"This lack of any policy or power of decision— obviously due to the paralysing effect of internal dissension—-made the failure of the conference inevitable. Iti the circumstances there is certainly some cause for congratulation that the failure was riot complete, that sufficient has been saved from the wreck to make it worth while to resume the discussion next . year. That, at all events, is supremely important."